Plenty of Indian business tycoons have donated generously to their alma maters, and India’s richest man has joined the list.
Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani has donated Rs. 151 crore to his alma mater, Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai. The donation is in the form of an unconditional grant. Ambani had graduated from the college, then known as University Institute of Chemical Technology, in the 1970s.
Ambani said he’d been influenced to announce the grant at the behest of Professor Man Mohan Sharma, who was formerly the Director of UICT, and a Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan awardee. “Professor Sharma belongs to that rare community of teachers for whom teaching itself is dharma,” he said at an event. “Their passion is to make a difference to the life of humanity. The word that best captures Professor Sharma’s personality is that he is an influencer. The word influencer has gained currency in recent times in the age of social media. But Professor Sharma has been an influencer from the sixties. He’s an influencer with a difference. Today, India has the world’s largest population of youth. We need tens of thousands of gurus like him who can teach our youth to realize the dream of Viksit Bharat,” he added.
“When (Professor Sharma) tells me something, like he told my father, we just listen. He told me, Mukesh bhai, you have to do something big for ICT. So I said, sir, you tell me whatever you want. So he says, announce Rs. 151 crores. To ICT on an unconditional basis, and I am very, very pleased to announce that for Professor Sharma,” Ambani added.
A host of successful Indian business leaders have donated to their alma maters. Nandan Nilekani has thus far donated Rs. 400 crore to IIT Bombay, and in 2023, an anonymous alumnus had donated Rs. 160 crore to the same institute. Last year, Motilal Oswal foundation had donated Rs. 130 crore to IIT Bombay, in spite of the founders not having attended the institute. the Browserstack founders had also donated Rs. 100 crore to IIT Bombay. Other institutions have also benefitted from the largesse of their alumni — Indigo’s Rakesh Gangwal has donated Rs. 100 crore to IIT Kanpur, Happiest Minds’ Ashok Soota has donated Rs. 20 crore to IIT Roorkee, and Reckitt’s Rakesh Kapoor has donated Rs. 10 crore to BITS Pilani.